The integration of Hilton and Stakis PLC

During the year 1999 Hilton and Stakis plc integrated together to form one group. This involved an integration of 80 Hilton hotels and 54 Stakis hotels in the UK. Hilton and Stakis had different organizational cultures from each other. Hilton was characterized as professional systematic and process-led. On the other hand Stakis was characterized by its company personality , engendering customer loyalty by being accessible and intuitive ,making service mistakes but overcoming them with a friendly smile.

Organizational Cultures

Although all organizations have cultures, some have a profound more deeper rooted culture than most others. Initially, a strong culture was seen as a concurrent set of beliefs, values, assumptions, or practices shared by the vast majority within an organization. This emphasis was due to the degree of consistency of beliefs, values, assumptions, and practice across organizational members and the number of consistent beliefs, values, assumptions, and practices. Many early models of organizational culture assumed that a strong, pervasive culture was beneficial to all organizations because it brought motivation, commitment, identity, solidarity, and similarity, which in turn, brought about internal integration and coordination. But, a strong culture might be more important in some organizations than others. “A strong culture could also be a means of manipulation and co-optation” (Perrow 1979). “It further contributes to a displacement of goals or subgoal formation, meaning that behavioural norms and ways of doing things become so important that they begin to overshadow the original purpose of the organization” (Merton 1957; March and Simon 1958).

Culture was initially seen as a means of enhancing internal integration and coordination, but the open system view of an organizations recognizes that culture also plays an important role in adaptation to the environment. The initial view of a strong culture was contrary to the ability of an organization to adapt or change. Culture is seen as important for facilitating innovation, acceptance of new ideas and perspectives, and needed organizational change in an organizations culture.

Schein (1992) says that “a strong organizational culture has generally been viewed as a conservative force”. In contrast to a view that a strong organizational culture may not be able to function perfectly in a contemporary business organizations that needs to be change-oriented, he argues that because an organization has a strong organizational culture that is pretty stable does not mean that the organization will try to put up a resistance to change. It is possible that a strong culture is change – oriented, even though strong organizational cultures in the past mostly were not. He suggests that modern organizational culture should be strong yet limited, making a differentiation between the fundamental assumptions that are important for the survival of the organization and success from everything else that is merely relevant. Today’s organizations, are characterized by an environment that rapidly changes and a diverse internal workforce, need a strong organizational culture yet one that is less pervasive in terms of having fixed norms and behavioural patterns than those that existed in the past.

National Cultures

Researchers have found, the national cultures have a major influence in the shaping of strong values among its members. The result is a sharing of values, preferences,

and behaviours of population groups that differ widely between countries. This also frequently happens in the cases between different subgroups in a country, that there are differences so it should be kept in mind that the term “national culture” could be misleading. It may only refer to a tiny part of the people in a entire country.

National culture is a very important part of any organization. National culture has a profound impact on the organizational culture of an organization as well. The national cultures of the different locations of the Hilton group will inadvertently affect the organizational culture of the Hilton group plc.

The steps taken by Hilton group plc to ensure a strong organizational culture could mean that it could lead to too much competition where one employee would get in the way of the other employee as there is no specified role or boundaries. Also the Hilton group plc seems to pay too much attention to local customers catering mainly to the local population forgetting that the major customers at any hotel are foreigners this could lead to customers new to the brand feeling that the service is inadequate. Also the brand has different services at different locations this could lead to loyal customers expecting but not receiving the same service at all locations. The strategies employed by Hilton group plc such as mystery guest provide an excellent way for workers to self evaluate themselves and find ways to improve services to a guest also the equilibrium programme is an excellent endeavour by the group where it tries to return to the live of customers a little of what life has taken out of them. But this could also have a negative impact as Hilton group assumes customers needs based on individual characteristics such as reason for stay or profession whereas in reality personal needs may differ based on a variety of factors. Also a decentralized work culture may lead to some people working more and others working less. This in turn may lead to the fact that some people or even managers that work more feel that others are not working as hard and may lead to a fall in overall productivity or bickering.

Q4)TEAM LEADERSHIP

Teams are made up of various individuals with varied goals and aspirations. These individuals may be 1) Creators: Dream things up 2) Mobilizers: Bring pople in 3)Organizers: Plan tasks out 4)Discerners: See through things 5)Peacemakers: Work things out 6)Pluggers: Keep on working 7)Promoters: Talk things up 8)Strategizers: Think moves ahead 9)Relaters: Love on folks 10)Motivators: Spur folks on 11)Managers: Keep things flowing 12)Servers: Help folks out 13)Specializers: Can do things (have special skills, subject matter experts) 14)Analyzers: Figure things out or 15)Inspectors: Check things out

Team leaders have various responsibilities and must be skilled in various areas. The first task any team leader faces it to put together a suitable team. Later on he must assess the various skills of the team members and delegate jobs based on their skills and behavior. Other roles a team leader must perform include is facilitating communication between team members, help with all aspects of the job and perform any other task needed as it arises. In the Hilton group there is decentralized organizational structure which means that leaders have authority to take decisions. This means it I simpler for leader to communicate their visions and ideals as well as that of the group in a more personal way to members of its team. Another advantage of leaders is that the Hilton group allows for innovation and respects the ideas and views of others so these leaders can tailor make rules and ideals based on the team and national culture as the needs of people vary based on various factors such as region etc. team leaders also have a profound understanding of the ideals and views of the Hilton group. The simplicity of these service goals helps leaders develop service and ideas that increase productivity while sticking to the company’s vision. Another advantage for the Hilton group is the fact that both leaders and other workers go through the same initiation and training process which deals to a better understanding and bonding with each other. On the other side this could also cause problems such as the workers seeing the leaders as peers and therefore not obeying the leaders.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT

It was initially thought of that every team goes through five stages in its development. Each stage contains hurdles to the individuals who want to work together as a team. When the members learn to solve and overcome these problems as a team then they build relationships and come together. Building relationships is an extremely integral part of any team. This can be done by social activities work related activities or workshops.

Tuckman’s Stages

Bruce tuckman reviewed about fifty different studies on development of groups.(including Bales’ model) during the mid-sixties and integrated their similarities into one of the most frequently cited models on development of groups(Tuckman, 1965). The model comprises of four linear stages (forming, storming, norming, and performing) that most groups usually go through during its sequence of decision making. The fifth stage (adjourning) was added in the year 1977 during when a newly available set of studies were reviewed. (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977).

Forming: set associates learn about every ones and the job at hand. The of this phase may contain: uncertain objectives, Un involvement, casual members, misunderstanding, Low confidence, unseen beliefs, Poor lunderstading, etc

Storming: As set associates carry on to work, they will take on each other in urging about the arrangement of the group which repeatedly are considerably touching and demonstrate a fight back for rank in the group. These behaviour mark the storming stage: Lack of consistency, bias, unseen plans, argument, disagreement, instability, hatred, anger, irregularity, disappointment.

Norming: Associates starts contained or open rules about how they will achieve their objective. They speak the types of statement that will or will not help with the job. indicators comprises of : probing of act, re-evaluate/clarify purpose, changing/confirming roles, Opening dangerous matters, violence, paying attention, trying new ground, Identifying potency and flaws.

Performing: Groups arrive at a conclusion and apply the results to their problem. Indicators comprises of : originality, plans, Flexibility, Open relationships, self-importance, worrying for people, knowledge, assurance, High morale, accomplishment, etc.

Adjourning:As the group assignment ends, the group split up in the deferment stage. This stage was added when Tuckman and Jensen’s updated their innovative review of the literature in 1977.

TEAM MOTIVATION

According to Robbins, 168 “Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs”. For some human resource managers, team motivation is a great path to increase the productivity in an team. When people are motivated, they have a reason to put more effort into what they do. Motivation is a important management device in lifting the team’s work force’s capability.

There are various different ways to motivate people in a team. Leaders can motivate their team members as individuals, groups, or the team as a whole. Motivation takes place in various forms like the offering of rewards, improving of working conditions, or recognition of employees.

Group-based reward systems have often been raised as an issue in the area of work management. Most people prefer group-based reward systems to an individual based reward system. Bob Harrington, opposed the individual reward system. Individual reward systems create an unnecessary competition and also reduce cooperation among different members of a team. This also reduces the employee’s creativity because the employees will only do those jobs that will get him a reward. Harrington said team-based motivation influence persons to bond together and cooperate with one another. Nowadays employees and management are not measured exclusively in opposing to economical data. as an alternative, exceptional act is based on a grouping of objects that assess the planned objectives of the team.

Some people are very successful while they work alone. People, raised in an individualistic culture, might not help from operating in a group. So, persons motivational arrangements do play an vital function in increasing the output of the job force as far as the company knows how to utilise this arrangement effectively. If a squad place a benchmark to determine individual accomplishment and return that individual on what he (she) achieved, then, the individual motivation system may work and also the team-based one. Also team leaders have to understand that team-based encouragement systems may lead to A Social Loafing effect in the team – the habbit for individuals to spend not as much of effort when functioning together than when working alone.

The Hilton group has a good approach to team development as it provides a lot of opportunities for both individuals and groups to express ideas and also lets them take most decisions on their own and this helps motivate people in the team to add their own personal touch and therefore have a more personal relationship with the customers.